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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

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Thank you for joining me today. Before we begin, I would like to ask you for your support by writing our show on Apple podcasts, your feedback will help us to improve and of course bring you more valuable content in the future. Once you rate us, please send us an email confirmation. And we will send you our copy of the book The Real World guide to authentic personal branding. So now let's get started. today's podcast is called self awareness, the what and the how, it's what I would say is the first step to reclaiming your personal power. We will explore the importance of self awareness and how it can help you, you know, reclaim your personal power, especially if you felt like you've lost it, given it away, et cetera. But it's a question that you've got to ask yourself, what is personal power. And obviously, it's something that is inside you, and is the ultimate that can never be taken away from you unless you give it away. And that's why self awareness is so important in recognizing that it's all up to you.

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So self awareness is the experience of one's personality, where individuality it's not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia, which is of course being aware of one's environment, body, and so on. And that's different. What it is, is self awareness refers to an individual's ability to recognize their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, and of course, behaviors. And it's a recognition of that awareness that leads to understanding one's character, feelings, motives is eyes. So much better. Research conducted by Harvard University with 1000s of participants found that the majority of people thought they had a high level of self awareness. However, the research results showed something different. Only 10 to 15% did so. In my experience, as a personal business coach with 10s, of 1000s, of live client sessions, I found the results aren't surprising. And the interesting thing about all of this is there is no shame in this, because most of us are doing the best that we can, knowing what we know, of course, you know, awareness, and self awareness is all about that you only know what you know. So part of becoming more self aware, is to go deeper into yourself and of course, through your own self study, and find out exactly where the gaps exist. That's where self awareness is a critical tool that can help you know so much more so you can reclaim your personal power, and make no mistakes. As I mentioned at the outset, your personal power is the only power that can't be taken away from you. Your positional power, your job, your position, from the perspective of title, your business, your home, your assets can always be taken away from you for whatever reason, but your personal power, the internal stuff can never be taken away, just the way it is. By understanding yourself better. You know, you identify your strengths and weaknesses, and I constantly bang on about this.

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But that's all there is your strengths, understanding that. And of course, see, you can leverage your strengths in this is a big enabler, and of course, to maximize your potential, while also improving your weaknesses, if you choose. The aspect of what we're talking about here is fairly simple. There is no point living in the now the greater you know yourself, the better you will get to know others. And that can only benefit you, and certainly in the short and long term, all your relationships. Self awareness also allows you to take control of your emotions by recognizing and managing them, which helps you make better decisions in difficult situations. You know, for example, imagine a business negotiation, a personal relationship challenge, et cetera, the more you are in control of you the greater chance of an effective outcome, as opposed to a wall as the endgame in reference to your communication With an individual group, and so on, so understanding yourself, controlling yourself, knowing how to manage yourself are all essential. Plus self awareness enables you to accept yourself for who you are. It develops, you know, a healthy sense of self confidence that is not based on external validation. Look, we all like to be light, it's a fact of life. But if you're living your whole life about being liked by the outside world, it's going to create all sorts of problems for you. Of course, anxiety, depression, or worse comes from constantly looking internally, again, and then beating yourself up. Self awareness is not about beating yourself up. It's about finding things about yourself, and then going out there to transform aspects that you are not so happy with. And this is the key here, it's not selfish to love who you are, you actually owe it to yourself, we live in confusing and volatile times. However, it is full of unlimited possibility for anyone that wants to create the magic. And what do I mean by that? Whatever magic means to you, new innovations, new businesses, new relationships, et cetera, et cetera. When you have self awareness, you are less prone to be influenced by things that don't actually matter to you. And this is essential, because today, you're being influenced by everything you can think of. And of course, we were influenced from an early stage with education, religion, etc. 

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But today, of course, you have been influenced by mass media, social media, politicians, you know, add all sorts of messages out there, that obviously have a role. But that role might have nothing to do with you, you know, they have their intentions, but what have nothing to do with your life intentions. So it's important that you become self aware. And also, then, of course, situationally aware, the environment, again, how that impacts you. So you intentionally stay on your path. When you aren't self aware, of course, you're gonna always drift a little bit sideways, that's called life. But because, you know, though, you know, in pulling you back to this path, it's where you belong at that moment in time, doesn't mean you're going to stay there forever, of course, but that's what the growth journey is all about. And by growth, it's really interesting, the more successful most people become, the more they're looking for constant growth, type of workshops, activities, coaching, etc, to get even better. And that's the interesting thing where people that are not growing, don't think this matters. 

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And it's really a paradox. So it's important, you know, to go back, check out where you currently sit in reference to your own self awareness. So further, by being self aware, you better understand how your behavior affects others. And by affecting others, of course, you need an element of empathy, and of course, possibly compassion that comes after empathy. So it allows you to communicate more effectively, and build better relationships with them. So let me explain to you empathy. And what I mean here by empathy, I mean, authentic empathy, a real aspect that you tear, as opposed to you're just making it up. So you can sort of win over that personal group, because you're using what I would call his COVID type of communication. Now, it's authentic empathy. And that comes through very, very clearly, not only does this draw others to you, but also makes your heart sing. See people know when you truly care and want to do the right thing in all your being. And of course, doing with self awareness, you can make better decisions by objectively examining the situation weighing the pros and cons and avoiding positive decisions that could lead to negative consequences. You might be thinking, but how can I develop better self awareness or reminder, agile personal growth, we must become aware of the role of bad ego and how it plays this particular role in holding us back. Even if at that moment, we're not aware. That's not really a positive for us. You see, the ego is a positive thing or a negative thing. It's going to be up to you. And this is a question you've got to ask yourself, but I can share with you with my experience and having worked with many, many, many leaders around the world, okay. The ones that really excel and become free, have worked specifically on their ego, again, not on their mind, you know, in reference to more education, more knowledge, all that sort of stuff. It's more internal and knowing exact believe that their ego is what's holding them back, and is creating all sorts of dangers for them. And trust me, I've been there, I know what that looks like. So when you've done the work around that, it's like you don't even have to, you know, it's a no brainer. This is an important area to work on. Of course, though, the ego can be really positive, when it's not toxic. And that's what we're talking about here working on it. Your self awareness is part of that building as your personal development growing yourself is part of coming better, greater human being, in my opinion, anyway. So now as a starter, there are four keys to leveraging self awareness. Number one, being intentional. That's part of self awareness, thinking differently. And that means also if you want to be a contrarian or you are a contrarian, be a contrarian building skills, okay, learn new skills, growing your skills, and of course, changing your context. So a genuine context, it could easily be you've got a negative situation, and how do you reframe that into a positive and of course, you can do that instantly when you know how to do that. Number two, being intentional means also deliberately directing your thoughts and actions towards your goals such as not getting distracted and staying on point. Number three, thinking differently involves adopting a growth mindset, and challenging your assumptions and limiting beliefs. And what I would say in reference to thinking differently as well, I would say also invested at the concept of unlearning, unlearning things that you've learnt since you were a little kid at times that might be holding you back. And regarding mindsets are definitely a growth mindset is what is what's gonna keep you inspired, and definitely enlivened. And this is, you know, this is important because, of course, we've all had our story grown up, and at times what your experience have been is what you're on about today. And you can virtually erase a lot of those stories, I call mindset a little bit like, you know, it's recordings from the past. And like all recordings you can arise, and rerecord just needs a little bit of work. Okay, so that's definitely number three. And number four leads us to building your skills, like I mentioned, cleaning, unlearning, you know, seeking out new knowledge, experiences, and of course, wisdom, good, I would call that age old wisdom that has been around for 1000s of years of help humanity for so long to help you grow and develop technology. As I've noted many times as an enabler, it's not like it's going to be the new wisdom or wisdom already exists out there. It's just a great enabler. It's, it's a platform to get our ideas out there. And certainly from that perspective, it's excellent. So we're changing your context, okay. And this is an example of, you know, changing your context. For instance, if you're looking at technology, also, just from a negative point of view. Now, there's a lot of positives associated with that as well, as I've noted many times, so by changing a context, you are adjusting your environment and surrounding yourself with people and resources that support your goals and ultimate mission. So by incorporating these initial four keys, and you know that there's others into your approach to self awareness, you can move beyond the passive observation of yourself.

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And into the dynamic action, orientation towards personal growth, and fulfillment, nothing happens when it stays still, it's like water. If it stays still, it goes stale again. So you always need flow. And this is essentially and that could also for to exercise and reference to personal health and your physical health. This is it's about movement, and part of growth, personal growth is about movement as well. So in conclusion, self awareness is the first step to reclaiming your personal power. If you have no personal power right now, or feel weak, or feel like you're not in control of your life, or you feel like a victim. Okay, it's time to revisit that. But revisit that from an empowering perspective, that possibility exists, as long as you're willing to go with it. It allows you to understand yourself better, I've already noted that, okay, this is essential. The work that I do is designed for you to understand yourself better, and Manage stress effectively a big issue today, of course, if you're going through all sorts of anxiety, and all sorts of other challenges around mental health. This, of course gets you to manage your stress more effectively. And also, importantly, develop empathy for others. And of course, depending on the situation, compassion, because without that, you know, the heart has been closed. And we know what happens when the heart has been closed. relationships don't happen and if they do happen, it's all on a superficial level. So caveat, of course is to balance them So your inner self awareness with your outer self awareness. Otherwise overuse of inner self awareness might get in the way of how you view the outer world. And of course, that could also lead into other challenges. So I'm not saying, you know, you keep on sitting on a rock, at the top of the mountain, they breed, they go into self awareness, like, you know, a guru might, in Himalayas, you know, they have another agenda, your agenda, of course, is whatever that is for you. And it's about getting that in balance, because the inner with the outer has to be balanced, a bit lagging and Yang, otherwise, it goes out of kilter. So I suggest you take some personal time to reflect on yourself. Do that, you know, by going for a walk, or sit at the beach, visit the country area, whatever works for you, and could be also by meditation, exercise, whatever, but whatever it is for you, it has to be a time for you to reflect on yourself in a way that gets you to look in a at your strengths, and your weaknesses, recognize your weaknesses, and what truly matters in your life. 

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By being self aware, you can achieve the personal growth that you're looking for. and personal growth in this case incorporates Korea and business growth, and become one of the best versions of yourself and possibly better than the best version because you wouldn't know what that version looks like, unless you go out there and do whatever you can to maximize your time in this lifetime. As we wrap up today's discussion, please remember that we're here to support you in enhancing your personal power. That's one of the great benefits of authentic personal branding. Our work is about maximizing your full value, personal career and of course business. If you need further assistance, please reach out to us you can find our contact information in the episode description below. Also, remember to connect with me on various social media platforms such as Twitter at John underlined Michael, LinkedIn as John Michael and Facebook as image Group International. I want to thank you for tuning in today, and we look forward to seeing you next week for more valuable insights till then, wishing you a great week and cheers

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.